Apple Fires “Redundant” Beats Employees, Divides Those in California

Photo courtesy of bloomberg.com.

Apple is said to be eliminating Beats employees in “redundant” positions, and splitting up other employees between offices in Santa Monica and Cupertino in California. Apple executives visited Beats headquarters in Southern California last week and started began the process of transitioning employees and technology from Beats to Apple. Apparently those in Beats’s Finance and HR departments are undergoing the heaviest losses. Some workers were laid off and a few were offered positions at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California. Employees in Beats’ Development and Creative departments were more likely to be split between Santa Monica and Cupertino. Hardware engineers are also expected to head to Cupertino. Apple supposedly created a phone hotline for Beats employees to speak with Apple HR staff about severance packages and/or transition plans.

A new source also claims that Trent Reznor (former Nine Inch Nails frontman and Beats Music Chief Creative Officer) and Ian Rogers will join Apple. A surprising move, since Reznor was rumored to have left Beats following Apple’s acquisition, and has spoken out against Apple’s policies in in the past, when Apple first rejected his app back in 2009. Both co-founders of Beats, Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre have already committed to working with Apple. Besides changes in staff, Apple’s also laying out plans for Beast Music technology development, figuring out how to effectively integrate it with its own iTunes infrastructure. It will be interesting to see what Apple does with applications like iTunes Radio and Genius now that it has begun integrating Beats technology.

Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, once wrote in an effervescent email to employees saying, “Please join me in welcoming Beats to Apple. I hope you are as excited as I am about this new chapter in our history.” While Beats and Apple are sure to develop some innovative product design-we can’t expect anything less from Apple at this point- Cook’s praise comes off as slightly ironic now that hundreds of Beats employees have been fired or relocated.